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Designer Kate Spade is photographed at her offices. (Photo by David Howells/Corbis via Getty Images)

NEW YORK– 55-year-old fashion designer Kate Brosnahan Spade (professionally known as Kate Spade or Kate Valentine) was found dead in her Park Avenue apartment 10:20 local time. Police are currently investigating her death as an apparent suicide.

https://via-santafe.com/products/kate-spade

Spade was the co-owner of Kate Spade New York (alongside husband Andy Spade) founded in 1993. She later sold the company to Liz Claiborne Inc. for $124 million, and in 2017 it was announced that the company was again sold to Coach for $2.4 billion. The fashion line is most notable for their sleek handbags that have (what the company itself calls) crisp color fashion prints and playful sophistication. The company currently has over 140 retail shops in the United States and over 175 internationally.

Spade also founded Kate Spade at Home which launched in 2004 which was notable for home goods such as bathroom products and its fine China. She also launched the accessory, footwear and handbag brand, Frances Valentine in 2016.

She was granted the CFDA International Award in the years 1996 and 1998 and earned the Glamour Woman of the Year Award in 2002.